Shrewd Operators

This week I have been invited to join with 150 world experts at the second World Forum on Enterprise & The Environment at Oxford University. Last year’s event opened a debate about tackling the challenges of climate change. This year the theme is Low Carbon Mobility: Air, Sea & Land.

The opening discussions set the scene. Mikhail Gorbachev spoke about the pressing need for action. He explained what some of us know to be true but few accept, that ‘the era of absolute economic growth driven by cheap fossil fuel is drawing to an end.’ He urged us to reach out for the truth, not bend to pressure from special interest groups. He explained how he had sat down with President Regan to diffuse the Cold War. This principled and bold approach is what the world needs now to address the climate crisis.

Steven Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, outlined his view of how to tackle the low-carbon challenge. President Obama has made a shrewd choice to put this expert climate scientist in a role that is pivotal to changing the direction of US policy. I detected that the need to stay engaged with US opinion means Chu has had to rein in his aspirations. For example, he was not drawn on the issue of increasing fuel prices. He, too, is shrewd in the way he is plotting an achievable path into the future.

This is no time for looking at the world through rose-tinted spectacles or launching grandiose schemes that are bound to fail. The world needs shrewd operators to navigate through the challenges we face in order to make progress in the real world. World leaders need to be bold like Gorbachev and appoint experts like Chu to take us towards a more sustainable future.

Wherefore art thou E-Mini

O E-Mini, E-Mini, wherefore art thou E-Mini?

The departure of the prototype E-Mini from our driveway and out of our lives has left me feeling bereaved and sad. This is the first time that I have had affection for a car. Cars are transportation: full stop. It was only a car, I tell myself; but I have to admit to harbouring other emotions.

The E-mini has drawn attention. I have taken every opportunity to use this introduction to start a conversation about the make-up of a future sustainable society. I have found my words, more often than not, falling on deaf ears. Why then have I loved the E-Mini? Because it has engaged people who have not the slightest interest in matters environmental.

In my focus group of ‘E-Mini pioneers’ (the term used by the BMW marketing team), I was a loan voice expressing the need to decarbonise the electricity supply before electric cars will be truly green. No one shared my concern. I suspect that this is a true reflection on most people’s level of interest in the bigger picture of building a sustainable society and sustainable economy.

The E-mini is liked because it is cheap to run - at a time when fuel prices are climbing once again as the economy picks up. The E-Mini is liked because it offers the possibility of maintaining lifestyle after the oil has gone. These are real-world reactions, and the real world is where we live.

On Saturday, at the Oxford mini factory, each of us who handed back the keys of ‘our’ E-Mini expressed sadness to lose the car. I will return to an old flame. My 11-year old diesel Audi has much the same carbon footprint as the E-Mini (based on the current mix of generation capacity on the electric grid) but it has greater range and more carrying capacity.

I am sad because my excuse to engage the uninterested in discussion of the nature of a sustainable society has been taken away.

Kick BP’s Ass

BP continues to work to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from the well head deep under the sea where the drilling rig Deep Water Horizon had been operating before it exploded and sank.

Like many multinational corporations, BP dropped its national identity some years ago. It became simply ‘BP’ rather than the old ‘British Petroleum’. This change of name reflected the truly global nature of the company in geographic reach, ownership and governance. BP does not answer to any one government. However BP does have to work with the governments where it operates.

Where the country is small and weak, it may not wield much power against the corporate colossus. Where that country is the United States, BP has to tread carefully.

The US government does not like the polite and over optimistic tone of Tony Haward, the CEO. It matters little that the best engineers, drawn from across the industry, are doing remarkable feats under testing conditions. The public face of BP – which US commentators continually refer to as British Petroleum – needs to be someone who is seen to ‘kick ass’.

The facts that the US addiction to oil is driving exploration ever deeper off shore, and that the drilling rig was owned by a US company, are ignored. Until this terrible disaster is brought fully under control, many Americans will continue to refer to BP as British Petroleum. BP would do well to put a tough American to face the media and make it clear that this is a shared disaster. There will be more mishaps as technology is pushed to its limits to satisfy our craving for oil as the ‘easy oil’ runs out.

The regulations will be beefed up: deep offshore drilling will require double blowout preventers and other safeguards. This will not be enough. The safest solution is not one we like very much. It is to wean the world off oil...

Knowledge is Building

Following my depressing venture two weeks ago out to engage with the general public and finding that sustainability was low down most people’s agenda, I went on holiday. It was half-term and we had planned our getaway for some time but it suited me well to wind down a little and to reflect. I took with me the task to write an exam for the business school with regard to the global business environment. It was relatively easy to write the exam. Reflecting on the financial crisis and its ramifications was more straight-forward than dealing with how to achieve a sustainable society. People understand that there is a financial crisis, and when politicians speak about the need for action, people listen. Until recently, this has not been the case for sustainability.

On my return from holiday, my first meeting was with one of the leading management consultancies. We discussed my ideas about a Sustainable Revolution and how to achieve it. Five years ago, if I were to attempt such a meeting, eyes would have glazed over. It would have been necessary to retreat or lose the attention of the audience. Things have changed. The people I met may not have agreed but they listened and asked sensible questions. These are influential people who are now engaged in the debate. They know that sustainability is a growing issue but do not yet know how to deal with it.

Knowledge is building. Perhaps we have had the case of ‘the blind leading the blind’ whilst we started to consider the issue of sustainability. Now, some of us now see clearly where we should go and we are leading people who are starting to learn the best route forward. There will still be wrong choices and we will find dead ends but the process has begun. The Sustainable Revolution is coming.

Joe Public Doesn't Care

I spent an enjoyable but fruitless day championing sustainability at an outdoor event in Berkshire. The event itself had nothing to do with either the environment or sustainability – that should have warned me. Our stand brought together a number of local sustainability groups aiming to spread the idea of sustainable communities. We hoped that amongst the crowds of people passing through the event we would grab the attention of a useful proportion. How wrong we were.

I had arrived in my electric car which then formed part of the display. The car attracted some attention but the interest was confined to the sort of questions Jeremy Clarkson would ask, such as how fast it can go, how well it corners and how far it will go on a full charge. My interest in testing the prototype BMW E-Mini is the potential such cars have to be a part of a low-carbon transport infrastructure. I tried this thought on the people who stopped and their eyes glazed over.

This was a genuine random sample of people and the results are interesting; and also disturbing. Joe Public is not going to change through free choice. Change will come because costs for carbon intensive transport increase and reduce for low-carbon alternatives - with regulation removing some choices entirely. This is how change will be delivered.

Further along the line of stands I spent some time talking with a salesman seeking to sell replacement windows. He had been in the window trade for over 30 years. He was convinced that there was no longer a place for wooden windows except for the rich who can afford to paint them every few years (his words). He sold exclusively plastic windows. Whatever happened to the idea that if money is tight you paint your own windows over a few warm summer weekends?

Further along there was a line of amusements stalls aimed at children offering prizes - all cheaply made. This was a depressing display of consumer detritus likely to end up in the bin within the day.

From this experience the conclusion I draw is that most people do not care about the concepts of sustainability. It is up to those of us who do care to lead change and push society onto a sustainable path. It can be done but we should not expect active support from the majority.

The Old and the New

I attended the Annual General Meeting and of our local scout group on Friday with the family. The organisers had arranged a quiz evening with food to ensure a good turnout. As the social event was buzzing around me I reflected on the advances of the modern age juxtaposed with the historic context.

The wood framed building had been rebuilt in recent years but much of the timber had been reclaimed and reused from an earlier building on the site. A number of the beams went back even further to buildings many centuries back now only briefly mentioned in the historic record. Tree-ring analysis dated one batch of timber to 1540. The quality carving indicated that this may have comprised the Manor House (long since demolished and now forgotten).

Timber with multiple uses over many centuries is an example of good sustainable construction. My thoughts then extended to the modern Formica-topped tables at which we were sat. These ‘monstrous hybrid’ materials are almost impossible to recycle successful and often end up in land fill after a life of 10-20 years.

After the meal all the paper plates and plastic cutlery were gathered into black bin liners and loaded into the large wheelie bin behind the village hall. This is an example of the convenience of modern catering making life easy for us all. What would a 16th century observer make of it all? They would recognise the wood beams and marvel at the gadgets like the Public Address system and data projector; but I don’t think they would be impressed with our wasteful ways.

The new occupant of Number 10

I assume that in London’s most famous address, 10 Downing Street, Gordon Brown has packed all his personal possessions into boxes and is ready to leave. He has a constitutional duty to remain until an alternative government emerges. It would be presumptuous of David Cameron to have his bags packed ready to move in, but he must feel confident that this will be his next home. His call for change is what the country needs.

Now, there is a chance for deep-rooted change - if our leaders grasp the opportunity. Difficult times demand bold action. Otherwise, there is a danger that the same tired policies will continue but with a different spin and slightly altered priorities.

Politicians, and most of the electorate, are fixated on our economic ills. The apparent priority is to get the economy back on track. Other problems, such as environmental stress caused by continued high levels of material consumption, are being sidelined. It does not have to be like this.

Rescuing the economy, and stepping rather lighter on the planet, can be on the same route if we choose our direction well. Green stimulus measures are what are needed. This is far more complex than the simple economic levers used so far to counter the crisis. There is a difficult challenge to design appropriate government policy that links with, and influences, behaviour change to move closer to a sustainable society (that includes, of course, a sound economy). It can be done; and this is what the new resident of 10 Downing Street should focus on.